Teams led by HHMI's Jonathan Weissman and Jay Shendure reconstructed family trees spanning millions of cells in developing mice, reported in Science. Each lab had the cells record their own divisions in DNA, a first step toward mapping a mammal the way the roundworm was mapped.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 67%
- Operator
- Operator 27%
- Investor
- Investor 6%
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence68
Two decades after Janelia proposed the project, the adult fly connectome is finished. The 1,000-fold efficiency gain credited with making it possible is measured against the institute's own 2008 forecast.
Reality
- Evidence60
- Adoption40
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives55
- Confidence62
Leucine lifts mitochondrial output in cells by sparing membrane proteins from breakdown
University of Cologne researchers report leucine boosts mitochondrial respiration by curbing SEL1L, a protein that marks membrane proteins for breakdown. Because SEL1L also clears damaged proteins, the study's first author urges caution about suppressing it to gain energy.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+30
- Incentives45
- Confidence40
Worms with damaged mitochondria need an ER calcium channel to live longer
Kris Burkewitz's lab finds an ER calcium channel is essential for a mitochondrial mutation to extend worm lifespan. It explains an old aging puzzle in one worm mutant, a long way from showing how metformin, an aging-drug candidate, works in people.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence50
The wiring of a male fruit fly's brain and nerve cord is now public, and the payload for anyone planning a bigger map is a claimed thousandfold gain in connectome efficiency whose denominator nobody has stated.
Reality
- Evidence72
- Adoption40
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives60
- Confidence68
A genome-folding machine turns out to pick neuron identities, and that changes the Cornelia de Lange question
MIT's Horvitz lab reports that worms with broken cohesin build extra adrenergic neurons in place of GABA ones. The chromosome-structure complex is also a fate switch.
Reality
- Evidence66
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+18
- Incentives62
- Confidence55